Ok I was tinkerin around with the truck today and here's one thing I've wanted to do for a while. I'd like to bypass my foglight switch and run them off a toggle switch I mounted beside my HL switch. Ideally, I'd like to get a newer HL switch with the pull for fogs deal, but I've asked about it before and everyone said it's not possible, at least not easily.

So what wires do I need to cut? I'd like to use the switch later, probably for a couple '***** lights' under the dash, so I'd like to keep the power going to it for the LED... Seems like it would be perfect for this because it's only powered when the parks are on.

Here's a diagram of the fog switch wiring. I looked in the merry xmas manual but it's no good to me because mine has the separate switch 3/4 of the way across the dash, not integrated into the HL switch like the 99+.... If anyone has a wiring diagram for the 98's, feel free to post it up


Is that right that some of them are only drawing 0.01 volts with the switch off, and 0.02 volts with it on? one of them must be for the LED I would think....


I had to trim a little plastic away for the switch to fit, using a jigsaw blade by hand and a file lol...


the space left for the switch


Here it is installed... the lower one is for my rollbar lights, and the empty hole is for when I put the other lights on it




I'm also wondering pretty much the same thing about the cargo lights... I hate how the domelight has to be on when the cargo lights are on, so I wouldn't mind putting them on a lighted toggle as well. This isn't all that important right now, just throwin it out there

 

I've thought about getting some of those LED fog lights from advance to mount under the rail on my bed for switched lights, something to think about.
You could mount them on the roll bar though.

 

hmmm I've never even heard of the under rail lights... might look into it. And now that you mention it, I do plan to put a couple reverse lights on my rollbar, mounted underneath the bar I'm gonna fab up to hold the other 3 lights, so they would probably be more than enough....

 

Nothing is impossible and, nothing is hard to do. The only problem I see is what you want is asking a bit much, but, again, it just has to be mapped out onto paper / schematic and, all you need is the right types of hardware to make it work.

In one deal, you want to bypass, the next, you want to keep power to it to run "*****" lights under the dash so, this is your first constraint to deal with.

Now, if you insist on having power go to the switch AND have the OPTION of bypassing then, all you have to do is simply insert a CUT / KILL switch PRIOR to the main switch. From THERE, the INCOMING side will feed the CKT you want it to go to and, depending on the switch/s that are used, you can simply route the electrical signal ANYWHERE.

I don't have time to map / draw it out for you so, you'll need to either sit down and draw it out or have someone that can do it for you.

NOW, the issues that are going to come up:

- rated current draw on the switch

- what other CKTs are sharing the same power source. This can be a problem because, if you CUT power to that main switch that your looking to BYPASS, that's also going to CUT power to something else that may be tied into that CKT as a THROUGH FEED power source. Such the case in that example of the 98 FOG lamp SW. That 12 V feed on the lower right is a through feed to some other CKT. When in the <OFF> position, that 12V feed continues through the switch.

-Available hardware that is readily available (switch) that features PUSH PULL w/ LED rated for same current / voltage as OEM

-It will be an online ordered item from either Global Switch, Digikey, Allied etc.

You'll want to get out the correct schematic for your year and model and trace it out so you know with absolute certainty what is on that CKT for starters. Then you'll also want to verify which wires go to what and label them. This way, you'll know what is what.

With vehicles, it's very rare that a power source is not distributed through a main switch to other CKTs so, just verify what else is feeding off of the switch you would like to bypass.

If it were me, I would simply disconnect the fog lamps from it's current DPDT SW and rewire them as it's own CKT off the battery with an in-line switch rated for the current draw. That solves that issue. Now, you've got the LED to take note of- no problem. That is going to need to first have either it's own LED or, you can source a switch that has one inside it or simply make your own by drilling out the PP switch and epoxying in an LED, a resistor and a CAP across the anode and cathode. This same switch will switch the low-DCV to the LED so, it must be able to accommodate that as well as the fogs. It's very simple once you map it out.

To do so with complete abandonment of laying it out could lead to shorts or blowing the fuse. Even something as simple as rerouting power sources for your fogs needs to be drawn out to ensure it's not going to F-something up plus, that's your map to how to wire it up as well. Without a map, the chances of error are greater.

So, that would take care of your FOGs and your LED so that you'll know they're on.

Now, for those "*****" lamps, you'd best bet would to just simply wire a SPST -in-line switch off the HOT. I would wire that as a completely separate CKT all on it's own with it's own switch. Takes care of that too.

Next: you asked for the main switch to be "used later" for those ***** Lamps. That's where things get involved more and, to do that, that would require a CUT switch that kills power and is able to reroute it back to that OEM switch when needed. I would not do this. However, if we remove the fog lamps off of the switch completely as I mentioned above, you can simply use ONE side of the switch to turn on / off those lamps.

I got you covered on your FOG lamp push pull and LED with one switch so, we are good to go there. Just source a lighted LED Push Pull Switch. Look at the current draw of your lamps, get the correct rated switch. Your looking to switch two things off one switch, (LED + FOG +), this can easily be done with one DPDT SW. Now, they make some that are nice rocker switches with all sorts of nice colors. But, you can also find some push pulls that may or may not have LEDs in them already. Just have to make sure to use a 12 VDC rated LED plus, you would put a cap and resistor as mentioned above as well. This is why I recommend getting a rocker that has it all. It makes it much easier.

CM

 

I'll admit, I got excited when I saw that you had posted in here Mr. Mckenna Although I'm still tryin to wrap my head around all that info....

First of all, I can't seem to find the proper wiring diagram for this truck, although I'm still looking. Does anyone have one or know where I can find one online? The 01 service manual is no good to me for this

secondly, what if I were to forget about the foglight switch being used for anything else at this time, and just concentrated on wiring the new switch for the fogs? I have a lighted toggle that I was gonna use, so a PP switch shouldn't be necessary right, as the factory switch powers the FL relay and not the lights themselves, so there isn't any worry about burnin up the switch... My rollbar lights are wired through a relay to the same type of switch, so if they'll run fine without problems, I assume that the fogs, which are half the wattage, won't have any problems. I never considered that there could be something else powered through the foglight switch....

The main reason I'd like to do it this way is so I still go through the foglight circuit for the relays and whatnot, although I'm not that committed to it. The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to just run new wiring to them....

The idea that I have in mind is that I could cut maybe 1 or 2 (correct) wires that power the FL relay and connect them to the new switch, and if I did decide to wire in dash lights, that I could just wire them to the factory switch, probably with a relay if needed, basically as if I'm moving the fogs to the underside of the dash (theoretically speaking). In my head if I could do it like this, then the underdash lights would only come on when the parklights are on, like the fogs do now. Do you see where i'm going with this? Sorry if I'm a little confusing....

Actually, after reading over this post before posting, I realized that if it were to work the way I want, the dash lights would have to run through the foglight relays in the PDC. In which case I may as well just run the new wiring for the fogs.... correct?

I think that if I can locate the correct diagram for this truck, then I may be able to figure it out (somewhat at least). I'm good at reading wiring diagrams so that shouldn't be a problem.

Thank you very much for sharing your infinite wisdom, and I'll warn ya, I'm probably not done hounding ya yet

 

Something to keep in mind here is, Dodge seems to like to have a constantly powered circuit, with switches providing the ground. There is really only one wire off the fog light switch that you need to deal with. I think it is the brown wire, with the yellow trace that you want to deal with. Cut/Splice into it, run it to your switch, and then run the other terminal of the switch to ground. Should be golden.

 

There has to be an easier way. Why cant u just find the power in and power out sides of the fog light switch, transfer these to the in and out sides of the new switch, fog lights solved. Then run a new power wire from the parking lights to the old fog light switch power in side, then just wire ur inside lights to the out side and good to go, right?

 

This was kinda what I was hoping it would be like, but cmckenna really know his chit so I'm not gonna rule anything he says out yet.... I'm in the process of aquiring the diagram I need, so I'll go from there

this sounds pretty much like hey you said... and is basically what I want to do, but in easier to understand terms...

thanks guys, I'll take any ideas I can get. Hopefully I can figure something out by tomorrow so I can tackle it again. I never went to deep into it today cause I wanted to get some info from my DF buddies first

 

let me check. I have a hayned and chiltons manual. The chiltons is the **** for wiring. I will get that to you by 8PM tomorrow. I need to get to sleep and I am also working on my truck after work tomorrow.

I will find some time to scan the pages and post em.

--Dan

 

When you do that, basically, all that happened was one switch was swapped out for another- nothing has changed other than the switch. And, you've got to remember that one side is for the indicator lamp / LED and the other is for the 12V feed that feeds the relay.

The issue is that he wanted to have all those options. There's more than one means to an end but, how to get there and still get all the options that he wanted is another matter altogether. This is when it begins to get a bit more involved / complicated.

Now, as for constant power: what is really going on is that they use a through feed. Technically, if it were constant power, it would draw down the battery. Basically, it's feeding 12VDC to another part of the CKT which is usually the relay once <KEY ON> has been initiated. In a chassis ground scheme- it is common practice to switch the ground ON/OFF. This works if it's a chassis grounded CKT. So, it depends on which method your going to use- frame ground for the FOGs and under dash lamps. Technically, the relay is not needed but, is included as a safety mechanism so that the power is routed through the relay and not the switch residing in the cab. This is done per automotive standards.

In looking at safety, your best bet is to use a relay to prevent fire due to dead short in the cab by accident. I've wired direct and never had an issue so long as the hardware was rated and all contacts were insulated and totally shielded from chassis but, they put those relays in there for safety reasons so, you may as well use them.

When wording things as seen here: be careful of how that is worded. For, when I read that, it reads as a dead short- like shorting the power source directly to chassis ground which will blow the CKT as soon as the switch is engaged. In order to clear that up, the switch is going to switch one or the other-HOT or GROUND, not both on one switch for that's a dead short waiting to happen and cause a serious burn and or fire in the dash when the switch catches fire. In OEM practice, they switch HOT ON/OFF to power / energize the relay thus taking the switch out of lamp CKT. Even though it's only 12VDC, the Amp rating is quite high and sufficient to injury.

CM